The 5x14 Theory: An Investigation.

MikeH

birdwatching in Lombardy

My computer may be fast, but its operator processes rather slowly. Except for looking at some pretty coins, I am still stuck back at Huck's post about Shakespeare's turtle.

Huck, I found your reference to “The Turtle and the Phoenix” inspired and inspiring. I may be a minority of one, but I see the poem as an expression of the mystical ascent through reason into that which is beyond words and beyond logic. Read the poem for yourself with that idea in mind. The poem speaks of the two different birds loving each other so much that they become one, yet are also not one: “either neither,” as the poem says. That is not possible, Reason says, and declares them dead. But they have merely gone up to the non-conceptual, as everyone from Pseudo-Dionysus to Cusa to Pico would have known.

There may also be allusions to the alchemical marriage, which resulted in death and rebirth, e.g. the Rosarium Philosophorum and the works of George Ripley. In the late 16th century, Ripley was re-issued with illustrations. The illustrated Rosarium was published in Frankfurt (1550); however it would have been available in England. One source could have been the engraver Theodor de Bry, the head of what would become the leading alchemical publishing house in Europe; he worked in the circle around Sir Philip Sydney in London 1585-1588, and then set up shop in Frankfurt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_de_Bry; on the de Bry family, Klossowsky de Rola, The Golden Game, p. 14ff). To say more would be to stray too far from the topic, although not from the tarot.

There may well be topical references to various luminaries of the Elizabethan court as well. But I do not think we would get much of relevance here going that route.

Why did Shakespeare pick those birds? Let us look at Wikipedia on "dove" and "turtledove." They are symbolically different creatures. The dove is symbolic of peace, love, and regeneration (as in Noah, or Christ's birth and baptism). The turtledove is an emblem of faithful love, as it was thought to form inseparable lifelong pairs.

It is the turtledove that fits Shakespeare's poem, for faithfulness; he has the phoenix for death and regeneration. Faithfulness is also the theme of virginity and chastity: faithfulness to one's internal lover, God the Father, Jupiter the Father (of Pallas and Artemis), the refusal to submit to male desire (Daphne, and later Lucretia) and the eternal longing for the unattainable (Apollo’s love for Daphne). It is fixity to the phoenix's volatility, and their union a union of opposites.

The eagle and the dove are also opposites, as is spelled out plainly in the Michelino schema: virtue vs. pleasure, the choice of Hercules, as in countless Renaissance depictions (although not the 15th century Love card).

In the CY, the Eagle is the bird of the Emperor, who in my set of correspondences, which I went through in an earlier post in this thread, is equivalent in the Michelino to Jupiter.

But if the Emperor has the eagle, then so must the Empress. Sohe can’t get the appropriate bird, i.e. the phoenix, for her lead position (as Juno) in the second row of the Michelino. The honor goes to the third member of the “Riches” suit, Mars. In my grid of correspondences (which I hoped people would draw, as I don’t know how to do it here), Michelino’s Mars corresponds to CY Chariot. So we have the phoenix on the lady’s coin, or so I like to think was the thinking.

Some would say it is a dove. Kaplan, for example, identifies it as the dove of a traditional heraldic device of the Viscontis. So let us explore heraldic devices a bit.

HERALDIC BIRDS IN THE CY AND PMB

An early example of the Visconti dove is in a miniature done of the coronation of Giangaleazzo, first Duke of Milan (Kaplan vol 2, p. 73).

dovewhite.jpg


For the CY, Kaplan illustrates, the dove lookslike this (vol 2 p. 49):

doveKaplan.jpg


Since the lady in the Chariot card has just such a bird as the one on the right, it must be a dove.

But I do not think the issue is that clear cut. If it is necessary to make a distinction between doves and phoenices, as applying the Michelino would require, one way to do it would be by color and the rays suggesting a solar bird. Phoenices, doves, and turtledoves all look pretty much alike in illustrations (see the bird photos on Wikipedia, and bestiary pictures of phoenices). How to tell them apart? Here is one way: if they’re white or carrying an olive branch, they’re doves. And if they’re yellow, they’re phoenices--especially sitting on a nest with rays shooting out in all directions. I don’t know how turtledoves were conventionally represented. The examples above with rays could pass for a phoenix any day. If either bird or rays were yellow, the inference would be even stronger.

Another complication is that when we get to the PMB and related decks, the image of the "dove" changes. Perhaps when Francesco took over the Visconti heraldic devices, he assumed he had liberty to do so. Now Kaplan doesn't even call it a dove. He says, referring only to the device and not to any card, "...a bird, probably a pelican, faces to the front and is seen with young birds in the nest" (vol. 2p. 49). Here are the "heraldic devices" in question.

viscontibirds.jpg


The birds on the top left and bottom right look more like doves (as in the Holy Spirit descending upon Mary or Jesus) than pelicans. Pelicans, when shown biting their breasts and dripping blood to revive their young, are well-known symbols of Christ. But no such activity is going on here. And since when did the Viscontis or the Sforzas ever have a pelican as a heraldic device?

Unfortunately Kaplan does not identify the cards where these devices appear, except for two versions the King of Staves, the PMB (Vol. 1, p. 76) and the Lombardy 1 (Vol. 2 p. 18)--the latter a dubious deck, according to Kaplan, as it might simply be engravings of the PMB with some changes added. You can see them yourself, below. Kaplan says of the Lombardy 1 (at right), "On his robe is a bird with spread wings. Below his waist belt is the heraldic device of a nested bird, probably a pelican, phoenix or dove." It is nice to know that he allows phoenices," but I don't see anything. In the PMB, I may see a frontal view of a bird with outspread wings below the belt. I shall pursue this matter further at the end of my next post.

kingstavesPMBLom1.jpg


Let us turn to doves. In the CY, are there any doves, apart from the yellow birds in Coins? Kaplan’s index to Vol. 2 says there are some doves in the Love card (a bold print reference to a page means it’s in the illustration, I think; but I can’t find it anywhere else on the page, either). I can’t find them, so I don’t know what color they are. The Love card, sacred to Venus and Cupid, would certainly be a good place for them to hide out, based on my grid of correspondences.

One place, it seems to me, where there might be a dove is as the winged creature flying above the lovers--Cupid, as seen with Renaissance eyes. For example, here is an alchemical illustration of the Lovers, brother and sister or son and mother, in the Rosarium:

Loverosariumcy.jpg


Then there is as well the so-called "nesting bird" not nesting but flapping its wings, in the manner of the Holy Spirit, which Kaplan says appears in the PMB. I have found two, I think. One is where we would expect it, on the King of Coins--very indeterminate bird (below).

29dSfKCo.jpg


All I see is sunbursts on the other Coins court cards.

]img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_5e7P4Y3Wo3w/SspPY3Lw-jI/AAAAAAAAAQw/q0gB00H0-6s/s512/29sfpaQucoins1.jpg[/img]

Another place where a nester might be present is on the King of Swords.
Here are the two versions. I see nothing in the PMB, even after I lighten the image so as to bring out the squiggles. But there is a more bird-like squiggle in the Lombardy I's groin area. I have enlarged the detail.

kingswordsPMBLom1a.jpg


kingstalom1det.jpg


If this is a bird, it is closer to a phoenix than a dove, as befitting the Martial pose; Mars, you will recall, is found in the Michelino suit of riches/phoenices.

BACK TO MICHELINO, CY, AND PAIRS OF OPPOSITES

There should, if the fourth Michelino suit is like the other three, be a turtledove somewhere in the early cards of the CY deck. I said the Pope was the equivalent of Pallas, but that was just my hypothesis. Maybe I am wrong and it is the Popess. In any case, we have neither of these cards to view. I see no turtledoves anywhere in the CY that we have. I’m not sure I’d know one if I saw it.

And now once more to pairs of opposites: The Boiardo poem likewise has two pairs of opposites in its suits: fear vs. hope, and jealousy vs. love. Even a couple of the gods are identical: we have the Queen of Jealousy, Juno, who heads the “Riches” suit in Michelino, and we have Boiardo’s Page of Love, Cupid, in the corresponding place of the Michelino.

58_QueenOfJealousy.jpg


These double pairs of opposites were not invented by C. G. Jung (who called them “quaternities”). The Renaissance loved them. The four humors are the most common example: Choleric (volatile) vs. Phlegmatic (calm), and Sanguine (optimistic) vs. Melancholic (pessimistic). Below, Phlegmatic is upper left, opposing Choleric, lower left. Sanguine is upper right, opposing Melancholic, lower right.

hist43BET.jpg


There's also hot/cold and dry/moist, generating the humors. (I refrain from mentioning the four elements, for fear of provoking a plethora of associations derived from the Golden Dawn, out of their element, so to speak, here.) Also the "pairing marriage" (an anthropological term) popular there then and earlier, in which a brother and sister of one family marry the sister and brother of another.
 

MikeH

Kaplan's birds

Having said my piece about birds, I also want to present the other side, if "other" is the right word: what Kaplan says about these four birds in his Encyclopedia, as regards their application as heraldic devices in the CY, PMB, and decks part of the PMB family. I am grinding no ax here, just reporting. He seems accurate as far as he goes, just sticking to heraldry and not going into its larger symbolic ramifications. I will not give illustrations of the CY cards, as Huck has already posted most of the relevant details as well as how to get to the cards on the Web.

In the index to his Vol. 2, I see no references for Turtledove, one for Phoenix, a few for Eagle, many for Dove.

The Eagle is simple: "In 1395, Giangaleazzo Visconti purchased from Emperor Wenceslaus of Germany the hereditary title of Duke of Milan and adopted the imperial eagle as part of his ducal coat of arms" (p. 18). Ignoring the fact that Wenceslaus was never officially Emperor, due to the Schism, that is fairly straightforward. You have already posted that emblem.

The other reference is when Francesco Sforza took over Milan. He "took on the arms of the Visconti, the viper quartered with the imperial eagle--although, as a Sforza, he did not receive his investiture as duke of Milan from the Holy Roman Emperor. The duchy was to have passed down the Visconti line" (p. 98). A significant non-heraldic reference is the eagle as one of the four living creatures accompanying Petrarch's Triumph of Eternity (p. 146).

For the Phoenix, Kaplan gives the King of Staves in the Lombardy I tarrochi: "Below his waist belt is the heraldic device of a nested bird, probably a pelican, phoenix or dove" (p. 18). I have already discussed this image and its PMB equivalent in the previous post.

In my previous post I left out the quote from Kaplan about the PMB King of Staves. I give it here: “The decoration on the front of his robe depicts the Visconti heraldic device of a bird or dove with flaming rays–derived from Emperor Wenceslaus in 1395. Below his belt is a nest—also a Visconti heraldic device” (p. 76).

For the Dove, we have the reference just quoted from Vol. 2 and many more. On p. 24 we learn that a 1923 engraving of the Female Knight of Coins "wears a long cape decorated with the Visconti dove in profile surrounded by a sunburst above a ribbon bearing the motto A bon droyt." He goes on to say that this engraving may be simply an embellishment of the Cary-Yale Female Knight of Coins, with a viper instead of a sunburst on the coin.

fknighttavesengrav.jpg


On p. 26 we at last get to the CY Chariot. Of the female figure, Kaplan says, "In her right hand is a disc decorated with the Visconti emblem of a dove in profile above a thin ribbon. Although the ribbon shown here is worn, other representations of the Visconti dove suggest that originally the ribbon bore the legend A bon droyt." You have that.

On p. 34, Kaplan speaks of the CY Coin courts. The King wears "the heraldic device on his garment of a dove surrounded by sunbursts." The Queen “wears a regal gown decorated with the Visconti dove device seen on the king’s card...She touches a large coin held by an assisant who wears a blue cape bearing the Visconti motto A bon droyt. The Visconti dove is also in the center of the coin.” Next, the Male Knight’s horse’s caparison “is decorated with the Visconti device of a dove and another dove appears onthe male knight’s chest.” As for the Female Page, her “long gown depicts the Visconti dove.” You have all those, I assume.

On p. 40 we have the male page of Coins, with his "garment decorated with the heraldic dove in profile above a ribbon and surrounded by sunbursts." You have that.

On p. 69 we learn about Valentina, Giangaleazzo's only daughter, leaving Milan in June of 1388, to meet and join her husband Louis of Valois. "As part of her trouseau, Valentina brought to France a necklace of gold with the heraldic emblem of a white dove in a golden sunburst above a ribbon scroll that contained the motto, A bon droyt.

Here is one more example of the Visconti heraldic dove from “The Coronation of Giangaleazzo,” a miniature by Anovelo da Imbonate (vol 2, p. 73).

doveblack.jpg


So now I go on with Huck to Monza, and then the posts that follow. This is quite a trip!
 

MikeH

Birds en route to Monza

On the way to Monza, I re-examined the birds on the Cary-Yale (CY) cards, I see that they all have white on them somewhere. I guess that makes them doves. So much for the hypothesis that the phoenices of the Michelino were somehow put into the CY (for which Huck had already searched unsuccessfully). I still maintain that they are there symbolically. The eagle is pictured there in the right place, but that is likely a coincidence.

The “nested birds” of the PMB and similar decks (at least one of which might not even be 15th-17th century) is another matter. I wish I knew more of what cards Kaplan is talking about. Having a phoenix rise from the ashes is eminently appropriate for a deck designed after Francesco’s assumption of power, as Huck already pointed out on the “Greek iconography” thread.
 

MikeH

Monza and the Zavattari

Well, Monza was certainly a treat. I’d never even heard of Theolinda, and I would never have been able to spell Zavattari well enough to find anything on my own. Actually, it had never occurred to me to look at their work, even though they are mentioned often enough in the connection with the CY. But with Huck’s directions, I had no trouble finding both the queen and the artists.

A beautiful chapel indeed. But holding up the CY to their frescoes, I had a hard time connecting the two. I also looked at other things of theirs on Google Images. All their work is quite different from much of the CY, even to the little dog at the bottom of the scene. The CY is full of humor, informality, and life. (Believe it or not, it was the first deck I ever owned, even with its poor reproductions and the stupid re-creations. Before I saw the CY, tarot was for me just a New Age fad.) In contrast to the CY, the Zavattari figures look more skillfully executed, but also stiff, solemn, and without much individual character. I have a hard time imagining that these brothers could have done more than a few of the cards. But I do see the CY's liveliness and warmth in Bembo’s “Lancelot of the Lake,” plus many comparable details, as I outlined before. Whereas only a few heads here and there, like Faith, have any echoes in the Zavattari brothers. In general, the Zavarattis are of a different era, like the Visconti gold pieces compared to the Sforza ones.

If Bembo did not do anything before 1446, then it seems to me that the CY was not done before then. Either that or the Zavattaris had a certain apprentice do the work. I can imagine them chafing at the idea of spending their time on a pack of cards that no one would ever see except some spoiled kids and their parents.

I would not deny that Filippo planned and maybe even executed a 5x16 deck at the time of his daughter’s wedding. He would have considered the circumstances highly auspicious for such a deck, as Trionfi argues. He likely would have talked to or even engaged the Zavattari. But either (1) the apprentice did much of the work, or (2) the Zavattari made their excuses for not having time, or (3) the completed deck disappeared without a trace, later to rise up from the ashes, like the Sforza Castle and, as you say, Milan itself.

So that is my feeling about the Zavattari, individually and collectively, non-expert though it may be. I agree with the “most experts” cited on “Andy’s Playing Cards.” Bembo is the closest match I know of.